UMSI students team up with City of Dearborn to help residents access government services

Students holding notebooks and standing outside the main entrance of the Dearborn Administrative Center.

Master of Science in Information students Sreelakshmi S.B., Mansanjam Kaur, Iris Yuning Ye and Phil Mendez pictured in front of the Dearborn Administrative Center.

Thursday, 01/19/2023

Sometimes the most complicated problems have the simplest solutions.

That’s what three University of Michigan School of Information students learned this semester while partnering with the city of Dearborn, Michigan.

Their project? Test a new visitor management system that helps residents access services at the Dearborn Administrative Center (DAC).

“I think as designers, you’re typically working on the back end of a system,” says Mansanjam Kaur, a Master of Science in Information student at UMSI. “You don’t know how a user might react to a design. Usability testing helps us connect with users and better understand their needs.”

People sit in the lobby of a government building — MSI students Sreelakshmi S.B., left, and Phil Mendez, right, conduct a user test with City of Dearborn resident Lama Beydoun inside the Dearborn Administrative Center.

Kaur, along with MSI students Phil Mendez, Sreelakshmi S.B. and Iris Yuning Ye spent the semester exploring the system, learning the needs of government officials and connecting with Dearborn residents to learn how the system could better help them.

The project was voluntary and in collaboration with the Engaged Learning Office (ELO) at UMSI. ELO facilitates hands-on learning experiences for UMSI students in courses and through volunteering activities such as CUTgroup.

“I always love working with the Engaged Learning Office,” says Phil Mendez. “This is the reason I went to the University of Michigan. The partnerships that ELO makes with the community and the way we’re prepared for these projects is beautiful and meaningful.”

This project is a continuation of work previously done by UMSI students over the summer. As part of SI 688: Immersive, Applied Projects in the Social Sector, UMSI students James Benjey, Jake Leslie and Zhaohui Zhao helped create a visitor management system. At the time, the DAC needed a way to help residents connect to services in a timely and efficient manner.

“The city reached back out because the system needed a few improvements,” says Sreelakshmi S.B. “There were issues with the amount of information shown on the screen. They also needed an Arabic language function for residents.”

Alia Phillips, director of community relations at the City of Dearborn, says she was looking forward to partnering with the ELO and working with the students again. She’s already implemented the recommendations the students suggested and is seeing positive results from residents.

“I think this partnership between the City of Dearborn and UMSI is something all of us are really excited to continue and deepen over time,” says Phillips. “The students have been so great, endlessly curious and incredibly helpful.”

A close up view of a visitor management app on an iPad — City of Dearborn resident Lama Beydoun looks over a welcome screen on an iPad during a UMSI Civic User Testing Group session with students at the Dearborn Administrative Center.

—Noor Hindi, UMSI public relations specialist

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